The 10 week build – Week 2

Quite a lot happens in the first few weeks of a build – then you normally get a few quiet weeks, then a mad scramble as you try and get ready for a competition. This build is following much the same pattern so far. Frantic activity in weeks 1 and 2.

So, we now have most of our bits to build Catch Me If You Can. We’ve bought the plywood to model the shell out of (for now) so we can test and that’s mostly cut to fit now. We’ve got our friendly machine shop on board to start making our axles and boring out the gears to the right diameters. Once that’s all done – it’s a quick assembly job to make sure it all fits, then onto the business end of this beast.

Somewhere in amongst all this I’ve been trying to hold together a very busy day job and also carry on running the paintball site I look after…. Anyone would think I have a way of producing extra hours in the day!

Of course, this wouldn’t be without its issues. The featherweight weight limit is 13.6kg. Currently, between myself and the machine shop we’re trying to come up with a way of using Delrin, but reducing the weight significantly as HDPE isn’t strong enough for my liking, and Delrin is quite a bit heavier.